Syria holds a diverse mix of natural resources, with petroleum, natural gas, and phosphate rock being the most economically significant. The country also sits on deposits of chromium, manganese, iron ore, and a wide range of industrial minerals. Years of conflict have severely disrupted extraction and export, but the underlying geology remains resource-rich.
Oil and Natural Gas
Syria’s proved oil reserves stood at 2.5 billion barrels as of 2015, a total larger than each of its neighbors except Iraq. Most of that crude is heavy and high in sulfur, which limits the number of refineries worldwide that can process it efficiently. The country’s oil fields cluster in three main geological zones: the Euphrates Graben in the east, the Mesopotamian foredeep in the northeast near the Iraqi border, and a scattering of smaller fields in central Syria east of Homs.
Natural gas reserves are estimated at 8.5 trillion cubic feet, concentrated in many of the same central and eastern regions. Before the civil war, Syria was not a major global exporter of either fuel, but oil revenue made up a large share of government income and funded much of the national budget.
Production has collapsed since 2011. By 2024, Syria was producing roughly 46,000 barrels of crude oil per day, a fraction of the pre-war peak that once exceeded 380,000 barrels daily. Control of the eastern oil fields has shifted between government forces, Kurdish-led groups, and other armed factions over the course of the conflict, making consistent extraction difficult.
Phosphate Rock
Phosphate rock is Syria’s most important non-fuel mineral resource. The deposits sit within a geological band of chalks, cherts, and phosphorite-bearing sediments that extends across central Syria. Before the war, Syria was a notable global exporter, shipping phosphate rock primarily for use in fertilizer production.
Between 2018 and 2020, production was estimated at around 350,000 metric tons per year, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. That figure represents a steep drop from pre-conflict output but shows the industry never fully shut down. Phosphate mining and the production of ammonia and urea (both fertilizer ingredients) continued to operate under government control even during active hostilities.
Industrial Minerals and Building Materials
Syria produces a broad range of industrial minerals, most of which feed domestic construction and manufacturing rather than export markets. As of 2020, the country was producing cement, gypsum, pumice, volcanic tuff, salt, marble, and sulfur. Small private companies also quarried basalt, clays, dolomite, iron oxides, limestone, and sand and gravel for use as building materials.
No metals have been mined in Syria for centuries, despite known deposits of chromium, manganese, and iron ore. The country also contains natural asphalt deposits. These metallic and specialty mineral resources remain largely untapped, in part because the industrial minerals and hydrocarbons have historically been far more profitable to extract with the infrastructure available.
Farmland and Water
About one-third of Syria’s 18.5 million hectares is arable land or forest. The remaining two-thirds is desert and rocky terrain, concentrated in the southeastern part of the country. That ratio of usable land is relatively favorable for the region, and agriculture was a major employer and economic sector before the war.
The Euphrates River is the backbone of Syrian irrigation, flowing southeast from the Turkish border through the country’s most productive farmland before crossing into Iraq. Groundwater is the other primary source of irrigation water, though decades of heavy pumping had already strained aquifers before the conflict began. The Orontes River in western Syria and the Khabur River in the northeast also support smaller agricultural zones. Syria’s main crops historically included wheat, barley, cotton, olives, and sugar beets, all dependent on these water systems.
Where the Resources Are Concentrated
Syria’s resource geography creates a lopsided picture. The eastern and northeastern provinces hold nearly all of the oil and gas, making that region economically critical despite being far from the population centers of Damascus and Aleppo. Phosphate deposits sit in the central part of the country. Industrial minerals like limestone, gypsum, and marble are more widely distributed, quarried in various locations to supply local construction needs.
This geographic concentration has had real consequences during the conflict. Control of the eastern oil fields has been one of the most contested strategic objectives of the war, precisely because whoever holds that territory controls the country’s most valuable extractable resource. The central phosphate mines, closer to government-held territory, remained more consistently under state control throughout the fighting.